The Eric Metaxas Show - Ask Metaxas - Episode 3

Episode Date: March 13, 2020

If you have a question, Eric just may have the answer! It's the third installment of "Ask Metaxas," and Albin and Chris have their hands full of a variety of fun and/or serious emails from curious listeners.

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I tell all my relatives to take it. relief factor.com. Okay, welcome to the Eric Metaxis show. Eric is indisposed at the moment. I'm afraid he's been having GI problems and uncomfortable bloating. But I'm sure he'll be out in a jiff. Oh, here he is now. Looking pale and shaken.

Oh, you okay, little buddy? The Eric Mataxis show. Thanks, Todd. Hello, Todd. Albin, we've got a lot to cover right here. First of all, today is the day that we do ask Metaxus. I'm Mataxis. People write when they ask questions.

I try to answer the questions. Right. If I don't get it right, I get a pie in the face a la soupy sales. That's not happened yet. No. But the pies are waiting. They're waiting. All right.

First of all, we've got a number of things to cover before we do the fun Ask Mattaxas stuff. And these are, they're a ton of fun. They're always fun because the questions are so great. I want to mention we're doing a food for the poor fundraiser. Folks, if you haven't given yet, we can wait. Yep. We can wait, folks. We can wait.

Go. Do it? The phone number is, do we have the phone number? Yeah, somewhere. Well, actually, you can go to the website, which is metaxis talk.com. Right at the top of the banner is at the top. There's a banner there. We want everyone to give something, and you're entered in a contest to win so much swag that you won't even be.

You'll just have to give it away. Sign copies of all my books. I've written thousands of books, and Albin has written a bunch of books. We're going to sign all our books, and we're going to load them up. onto whatever truck or whatever conveyance you bring here, or we can mail them, and you get to visit the studio. Yes. And when you visit the studio, we shower you with so much love.

And I'm talking particularly about Albin. He's just a loving, touchy-feely brother. Very loving. And he's going to hug you until you call the cops. Albin, that's just who you are, man. I know. It's happened before, but, you know, I'm ready. I'm ready.

But we're going to shower you with love. You can bring friends. You can bring family because you're going to want witnesses. It gets ugly. But let me say this also. basically if you can't come if you win and you can't come

this is transferable you can say to a friend who lives in New York or is near New York or is coming to New York hey why don't you let Albin grope you because I'm not interested and there's food here you can hang out with us and let me say who this week's winter is oh that's right because we're picking a winner

every single week the winner this week is Steve Boozer from Crestview Florida. Steve Boozer from Crestview, Florida is this week's winner. We're going to pick a winner every week, every week, until this is over. We've only got a couple

of weeks left. In any amount, you can give $20, $10,000, $4,000. Don't send change because that's, you know. No pennies. But yeah, but give something, anything, and you will have the same equal chance of someone who might give $10,000 in all seriousness. But if somebody is able to give $10,000,

we always put this out there, it's my joy to spend the evening with you. My wife doesn't to know about it. We can just hang out. You and me, whoever you are, and we can have dinner together, or if you want Suzanne to join us, she can join us. And the point is, I love spending time with people who share my values, who've been generous about this kind of stuff. So if we do it in New York, we can figure out a time or in your city if I get to your city. But I want to put that out there because sometimes people are thinking, you know, I have money. I want to give it to something worthy. I think Food for the Poor is a gigantically worthy organization. We wouldn't be partnering with them.

So I want to say that to you. Again, the website is metaxis talk.com. And I think we had a phone number, but we don't have the phone number right now. But that doesn't matter. Oh, here it is. I found the phone number. The phone number is 844-863 Hope. 844-863 Hope.

844-863 Hope. We really do hope you'll help us. $320 feeds a family of four for a year. Guatemala. We've told you about this before, but it's important that everybody understand we have to do something. We're a wealthy country and we can all give something. All right, Albin, there was a letter that I got the other day that was so moving. Yes. I said, I have to read this on the air because it really made my day. I mean, easily. This is just beautiful. It says, this is Ian Salzman wrote. And Ian says, I'm writing because I wanted to share

testimony about your book, if you can keep it. Okay. So I wrote a book about America called If You can keep it, the forgotten promise of American liberty. And Ian Salzman writes, okay, this week I became a U.S. citizen after 22 years of living here. During the swearing-in ceremony, I had the opportunity to address the crowd to share my story.

Since my story of coming here to the USA is not exciting, I decided to address the factors that led me to finally turn in my green card for citizenship. The first point I shared was how several years ago I read your book if you can keep it, and it made a huge impact on my understanding of the United States. I shared that while I thought I understood the country, after reading the book, I gained a much deeper understanding of the Constitution, the heart, risks, and tenacity of the founding fathers, and the impact it had on the world, an impact I did not realize.

It was after that that I began to sing. think seriously about taking this step forward. There were a few points in my journey after this, but it seemed that this grabbed the attention of the crowd. In fact, one man came up afterwards to ask me to repeat the name of the book, which I gladly did as he was interested in reading it. In any case, I just thought I might share this. Blessings as you continue in your writing research

and everything you do, Ian Salzman. Wow. That's a dream come true. That's great. When I write my books, I'm always thinking there's going to be somebody out there who reads it, it may affect them, it may affect them to do something wonderful, and I probably will never hear about those things, but that's always my hope as I'm writing. So when I do hear something like this, that somebody wanted to become an American citizen because of reading my book,

frankly, I wish everybody in the world would read the book because I wish everybody in the world would want to be Americans, not just to get what we have, but to get our way of life, because there are things here that we don't deserve. Americans don't deserve what we have, the freedom we have, the religious liberty we have, the economic opportunity, these are based on a system that was given to us, I believe, by God, through the founders, through the reformers, that at a certain time in history, we were able to put in a constitution and create a nation, and by God's grace alone, it's existed for nearly two and a half centuries, and it goes away if we don't keep the republic. That's why, in the words of Benjamin Franklin, the title of my book is, if you can keep it.

you need to know basically what's in the book to appreciate my goodness what we have and by the way we ought to have all learned this in schools sure uh you don't shouldn't have to read my book but the fact is they stopped teaching this roughly in the 60s or the 70s fortunately I'm old enough to have learned some of these things that's right and even you're a communist I know look at that but seriously this stuff is so important this stuff is so important yeah that we have uh people running for president that don't begin to understand this. I mean, it's a shocking time in our history, but it's a wake-up call. I'm free to eat a KFC any time I want, and I don't care what my wife has to say about it.

Alvin, you know what, I think before we go to our break, do you have, I've always wanted to hear a KFC story. Today's as good a day as any. Well, that's just like one of my favorite places to eat. Of course, my wife is like she's got me eating healthy things like avocados or bananas. Because you're hen peck. No, because she wants me to stay around for a while, right? Okay, so, but when she's out of town, I sneak into that bad boy place known as KFC. Oh, so wife goes out of town and like, this is, this is like Abbott and Costello.

This is like Laurel and Hardy. The wife's out of town, so they sneak off to do something. Right. So I'm thinking, okay, I can sneak in the KFC place, but I mistakenly put it on the discover card. So she's going to discover, wait a minute. Oh, man. But here's the reason. I'll tell her, because I went in there to get a runcible spoon, because that's,

the only place I know that in the fast food world that you could get a run somebody knows what a runcible spoon is well most people know it as a spork a spork yeah hey this is a family program you watch your language but but in the owl and the pussy cat there's a line by then this is by edward lear he says they dined on mince and slices of quince which they ate with a runcible spoon now how do you know a spork is a runcible spoon because it's described by edward lear he made it he made the word runcible so he invented he invented the spork And the runcible spoon.

No, he invented the runcible spoon, but it doesn't fall, well, it does fall trippingly off the tongue. But the spork makes more sense because it's a spoon and a fork. They get married. But there's certain words that are just ugly. Spork is one of them. Well. In my opinion, there's certain words that don't rise to the level of using them. All right.

Are we out of time? Well, I'm going to go get some chicken. Was that the exciting KFC story? It wasn't as exciting as the avocado story, but. What could be as exciting as the avocado? There you go. They're going to make a feature film out of that. I think so.

All right. We're out of time. When we come back, it's Ask Metaxus. We'll have Chris Heimes in here with you. We're going to have some fun. Don't go away. Don't forget to go to Metaxus talk.com and give to food for the port. We're depending on you, folks.

With this feeling, I didn't know how to deal with. And so I just decided to myself, I'd hide it to myself and never talk about it. and did not go and shout it when you walk. Dr. My eyes without crying. Just day I've done all to see the E. You must help me. Dr. My eyes. Oh, hello.

It's the Airman Taxis show, and it's time for our weekly Ask Mataxis program. Gentlemen, and by gentlemen, I mean Chris Heimes. And what's your name again, sweetie? It's Albine. Albin. Sadar. Oh, and you're a guy.

I'm a guy. I get so confused. We've got so many people coming in and out of this program. So Albin Sater and Chris Himes, you are going to ask me questions that people have written in. Yes. And I'm going to do my best to answer the questions. And this is fun. We do this every week.

I want to remind people we're doing a fundraiser with Food for the Poor. Very important folks that you go to CS, I'm sorry, go to Metaxus Talk.com. You'll see the banner for Food for the Poor at the top. Metaxus Talk. and we'll be, every week, we'll have a grand prize winner. All right, ready? Yes. Who's first?

Chris. I am. Okay, this comes from Jonathan. I'm a busy father of four, husband of one wonderful wife and family physician. Wait a minute, wait a minute. Husband of a family physician and a wife? Well, it's a little muddled there, but the idea is he has four kids and a great wife, and he's a family physician. Oh, okay.

Yeah. I thought I was married to a doctor and his wonderful wife. And I was thinking, does the wife even know about this? Well, that's just wrong. That's straight up wrong. It's tricky times. Okay. No, I think he's on the up and up.

All right. In addition, I have interests and hobbies that I enjoy that are also time consuming. When I listen to your show and watch your interviews on YouTube, I recognize that you and so many of your guests are extremely well read, not to mention mostly authors. What is your advice to the busy professional and family man who struggles to find time to read and possibly write and still fulfill the necessary obligations and pleasures of daily life? Okay, that's Jonathan writing. And Jonathan, let me say this. This is my advice to you. In my experience, families come and go.

It's your career you need to focus on it. Okay? I know people have had two, three families. Families come and go. You focus on your career. Cut and burn. That is my answer. No.

Perhaps I'm joking. I love these questions because the guy says, hey, I love my wife. I've got four kids. I'm a doctor. I've got hobbies. and what do I do to read more and to write and whatever? And first of all, I want to say to everybody, chill. Anybody who's putting this pressure on themselves like,

I need to be reading more, not everyone can read a lot. I think you should leave it to the professionals like me, and I'll read the books and I'll tell you what to think. No, seriously, I think reading is a wonderful thing, but before I tell you my advice on how to read more, I want to say, I don't think. think people should ever guilt trip themselves or fool themselves into thinking that I'm more well read than I am. I might be fooling you into thinking that I'm reading constantly. I'm too busy

to read constantly. I'm often reading books that I have to read to write my books. So I think reading is spectacular and I recommend it constantly, but I don't think people should ever guilt trip themselves. Do your best, but don't do that to yourself. I mean, if you're raising kids and trying to love your wife, there's nothing more important than that. So, So, you know, I just would not, I wouldn't torture myself about that. But regarding reading and writing, anytime asks me, anybody asks me, what can I do to be a better writer? The first answer is read great books, read classic literature. If you're reading classic literature, you are helping yourself to become a better writer, period.

And then if you're asking what to read, I always say read the classic works of literature. Any 19th century novel, my goodness, from Jane Austen to Dickens, Dickens is unbelievable, all the the Russian novelist, 19th century novelist. There's just so much great stuff to read. Reading Shakespeare, of course, more challenging, but reading the plays of Shakespeare, this is like, that's real meat. I think a lot of times people read a lot of garbage,

and then they say, well, I'm reading, and it's like no one cares if you're reading, if you're reading garbage. If you're reading beach novels, you might as well watch a telenovela. Hmm. I'm serious. Yeah.

I, Dios, miho. I like reading Nancy and Sluggo. that cartoon series of Yeah. Well, that's a classic right there. So did I answer that? I think I answered that. Well, actually, no, let me say this. I think you can try to read books at night. And instead of just watching another hour of people yelling about what you already know,

make yourself go to bed, get ready for a brush your teeth, whatever, and read in bed. And I think that's a really, it's a nice habit if you can form it to try to have a book that you're reading. in bed. But listen, if you don't have a great book, you're not going to want to read it. So we've had some great authors on this program. Amor Towles wrote the book, a gentleman in Moscow. That was a great book. You've got to have a great book, a book that you want to read. But I really do think that the classic novels is my first, my first choice. Okay, next. Ron and Rue Lightcap of Millsboro, Delaware. Have you interviewed your wife about her wonderful work in New York City?

Ron and Rue Lightcap from Millsboro, Delaware. Those are totally. made up names. You think we're stupid? Could be. No, they're not. Ron and Rue Lightcap from Millsboro, Delaware, have I interviewed my wife and her wonderful work in New York? The answer is, yes, I have. Suzanne has stepped aside. She's no longer running the day-to-day at a veil, but I interviewed her and her successor at, it was about a year ago or a year and a half ago. You can find it on that, I think. Chris Woodford. And in fact, I met you, Chris Heimbs through a Vail, didn't I? Like years and years ago? Yeah, it was kind of...

Where Suzanne met you? Yeah, yeah. That's hard. It's just an organization. Your wife, Tiffany, has worked there for many years. And I talk about AVAIL all the time. I'm a big fan. And so the answer is, yes, I have. And they do have a big benefit coming up in April.

In April. Let's throw that in. In April. Yes. There you go. Oh, wait. They have a big benefit coming up in April. So if anybody wants to go to that,

you go to AvailNYC. org avail nyc.org i'm pretty sure i'm going to be there i think if i'm in town i know i'll be there okay next question all right this is from stephen why do historians say the far right is connected to the far left in a circle continuum they also say the nazis were no socialists in a circle continuum sort of you go far enough left no no no no no no it's totally true listen why is i mean when we talk about the bolsheviks we talk about lennon and stalin and we say they are hardcore left as far left as you can go and they're Marxists. And then you talk about Adolf Hitler and people say, oh, he's a fascist and he's as far right as you can go.

He's far right wing. You get the Nazis. And guess what? I completely disagree. Absolutely disagree. Both are effectively the same. They are state, what's the word? It's their big state, authoritarian, totalitarians. So there's effectively no different. So when Hitler cynically used the Bolsheviks and the communists as his punching bag, he was doing the same thing. In other words, if you're given a choice, do I want to live in Stalin's Russia or do I want to live in Hitler's Germany disagreeing with Hitler? They're effectively the same thing. They're totally, they're utterly totalitarian societies where the state runs everything, where the government runs everything, where you have no rights. So I don't think, I think it's a cliche to say that the Nazis or the fascists were far right.

I don't see them as being effectively any different except in style from the left, ultra-left communists. And of course, the Nazis were socialists. I mean, it's called National Socialism. So there's no doubt that to be a Nazi is to be a socialist and to vote for Bernie Sanders is to be a Nazi. Janet from I'll leave it there Henderson North Carolina says I am grateful for seven men

and the other book seven women and would love to see seven more men and women will you write it I love that you wrote these books to highlight the heroism really what heroism really means Okay Janet from Hendersonville

North Carolina you're in luck Janet because I've already completed the manuscript with the help of my friend Anne Morris I have to say Anne Morris I normally don't have any help in any of my books, but the seven men book, the seven men book, the seven men book, I had Ann Morse help me on drafting those. I think showing people who heroes are in this day and age, we need heroes. And so seven more men, it's going to be published. I mean, you could get a

copy just about now. It's like you could order it now. You'll get in a couple of weeks. It's out. It's got a green cover, big seven, seven more men, seven more women is coming out in a year. So check it out. Zanitsen is one of the heroes in the book. Actually, I won't mention all the names, but the book is out. Please pre-order it now anywhere you can. All right. Next question. Alexis.

Oh, Alexis, thank you. I saw one of your recommended books was Jules Verne, the Mysterious Island. I've read this, and I was really surprised to see it, as it's not very well known. What do you like about it? What made you at it? Why did you do that? and should you update your book list on your website? Actually, yes, I should.

I mean, I don't know quite why I put that one in there, except that I really liked it. I love Jules Verne, and I didn't know which one to recommend, but I kind of think I settled on the Mysterious Island because it's not that well known. But there's so many books that are worth reading rather than reading whatever junk is out now,

because there's always stuff coming out, and I think I would rather read the classics. But Jules Verne, I like reading books that, often are thought of as books for younger people because the story is not as... Oh, we're at a time. We're going to be right back in the next segment more with Ask Metaxus.

That sounds like a creepy, come on. I don't know if I want to write in your beautiful balloon because I don't know what you're referring to and I don't like it and I'll see you later. Hey, folks, it's the Eric Mataxas. I'm sitting here with my main men. What are your names again? Chris over here.

Chris Heimes and Albin. Hello. Sadar. Yes, that's it. Okay, you're my main man. You're asking the questions. Ask Metaxus. I do my best to answer. I wasn't quite finished answering the question on Julius Verne. There are just so many neat books, but I do need to update the list on my website.

I want to encourage people. If you go to EricMetaxe.com, there are all kinds of resources there. There is a books list. You should also go to Socrates in the city. We posted the Peter Thiel video. There's a lot of great stuff on my various websites, but mostly Ericmataxis.com and Socrates in the city. but the list of books to read, all I can say is that the books of Jules Verne, they have a most of them, not all, but they have a tone that I find very funny and entertaining. So it's very Jules Verne, very, you know, mid-19th century. There's a kind of a positive aspect to it. So I'll leave it at that.

Okay. Pastor Jerry from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Come on down, Pastor Jerry. As one who loves to study church history, I really enjoyed reading Martin, Luther. Thank you for all the hard work and effort you put into it. It left me with this question. Given the fact that Luther's commentary regarding the Jewish

people was positive and congenial before and after the one anti-Semitic pamphlet attributed to him, is it possible that the booklet was not originally his, but inserted into his work by someone involved

perhaps with Hitler? No, it's not possible. I'll tell you why. It's still a good question, Pastor Jerry from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I should explain if people aren't familiar with what we're talking about. In my book, Martin Luther, I mention how Luther was initially very positive toward Jews. He basically thought, since he had kind of rediscovered the gospel, if we present the gospel correctly, which the church he believed had not been doing, many Jews will turn to the Messiah, Jesus, who's their own Messiah. And he was wrong in that. It was really a culture.

bridge too far to try to get many Jews interested in what he was selling. And so he became bitter about it and kind of turned nasty toward the Jews. But it wasn't just in this one pamphlet. I mean, there were other things. But it is true that you can't simplistically say Luther was an anti-Semite because for a good part of his life, he wasn't. And even his anti-Semitism, it needs qualifying, which I'm not going to go into right now. But I thought I did that in the book. If you read more carefully. I think you'll see that he was not your classic modern kind of anti-Semite. It was very strange. He also believed the world was coming to an end and he was bitter. I mean, we need to be clear. He was bitter and nasty toward just about everyone, toward the people

in his camp with whom he disagreed, toward the Catholics, toward the Turks, I mean, there was a kind of a general sourness to him, but there is zero chance that the pamphlet on the Jews and their lies, which is attributed to him, was not written by him. I've never heard that suggested. I do think it's fair to say that people like Bonhoeffer who knew Luther extremely well was not familiar with this writing. I think it was just something that was considered ultra minor until the Nazis with, you know, unprecedented cynicism found it and said, we can really make something of this.

And they pushed it and pushed it and pushed it to make it sound like they were agreeing with Luther and like it was German and somehow Christian to be anti-Semitic, which of course, anything but okay. All right. This is a nameless question, but the question is, can you have Kanye West on the show? Can I have him on the show? Sure, I could have anybody on the show, but will I have him on the show? That's really up to Kanye's people.

They've been avoiding me. I don't like it. They've been shirking me. Kanye, you need to come on this show. No, I mean, everybody knows it. I would be delighted to have Kanye West on this program. And I look forward to it. I assume that I will have them on the program.

You are. Hey, I assume I will interview Donald Trump. I mean, I think that there are people that I want to interview. They're very hard to get. But I would just kill to interview Kanye, probably even out on this program, probably in a larger, you know, like maybe downstairs in the theater here and it's kind of a big venue. If you get him. But, man, if I knew how to reach out to him. Well, you were in Golden Corral and you had bumped him to one of his PR people.

And the guy just turned around and went right for the shrimp and said, forget you, Eric. Yeah, I was really hurt. Because in Golden Corral, that's how I make a lot of my connections. That's right. You know, there's no Golden Corral in Manhattan. That needs to change. That's where you score a lot of the... Because they serve several kinds of soup.

And shrimps, they serve several kinds of soup. All right, so Kanye West, if anybody knows him or knows how to, you know, I would be thrilled. I've tried, but, you know, we just don't have the staff. We'll start by getting you a pair of his shoes, a pair of his yeasies, right? Yeah. Yeah, I'll wear it. Rebecca. From Eagle Point, Oregon says I first discovered Karen Swallow Pryor on your show and found the interview delightful.

I have since followed her on Twitter. Wondering if you could give a response to her recent article, does pro-life mean pro-Trump? You know, I love Karen Swallow Pryor and her writings. I think we differ politically somewhat. She's very anti-Trump. And, of course, I'm only slightly anti-Trump, like when he says, you know, nasty things about Jeff Sessions and, you know, makes fun of Bloomberg's height. And he does a lot of stuff like that that he shouldn't do. And he is turning people off like Karen Swallow Pryor, just pushing them away.

And I wish he wouldn't do that. But I don't agree with Karen's article. I read it a while ago now, so I don't remember the specifics. But I think, I mean, first of all, of course you can be pro-life and not be pro-Trump. Obviously, the answer is yes. I agree with her on that. But I think that the pro-life issue is so important. I think we're cynical if we think Trump is just using it as a political thing.

I think that even if he is just using it as a political thing, he has been really extraordinary in speaking at the March for Life. And so I have complicated thinking on that. Oh, we're going to a break. We're going to be right back. More. Ask Mataxis on the Eric Mattaxas show. Hey there, folks. This is Eric Mataxis show.

We're doing that kooky weekly show. Well, ask Metaxus, where you get to write in and ask me anything you want. And if I can, I try to answer it. And so I'm sitting here with Chris Himes and Albin-Sadar. They're asking the questions. Hello. Who is next? Yeah, this is from Thomas.

He says, how can we help lead our society in the Reformation of Manners? Okay, most people don't know what that means. Reformation of Manners is a term used by William Wilberforce in my book Amazing Grace. talk about how he did, you know, he worked for the battle against the slave trade, but his second big goal in life was to reform the culture because he saw that beyond just this one issue of the slave trade, there was brokenness throughout the culture. So he called that the reformation of manners. He didn't mean like what kind of fork you used, but he meant the culture, morality. And he really spent most of his life working on that. I mean, more than you realize, because

He's so famous for the abolition issue. But he looked around and he saw that the culture was bereft of Christian influence. It was a very pagan culture. 18th century, Great Britain was very pagan, very broken. And he said, we need to bring our faith if we call ourselves Christians, which, of course, the English did officially. He said, we need to be serious about our faith. We need to help the poor. And he brought a biblical view into the culture because imagine living in a time where people say,

well, I don't think I need to help the poor. We live in a day to death. where everybody says, of course we've got to do something about the poor. We just argue about how. In those days, they just, nobody seemed to do anything. So he really wanted to affect the culture because of his faith in every way. So Reformation of Manners, I think, has to do with bringing Christian faith into every part of the culture. And this doesn't mean establishing a theocracy.

It just means how can we bring our faith as supposed to be salt and light into the culture. for me, I guess, since we don't have a ton of time, I will say, I think it has to do with tone. And this is the kind of thing to some extent I would fault the president on. There are times when you have to be gracious and civil. You can be too gracious and too civil and lay down while your enemies romp over you, which is what previous Republicans, it seems to me, have done. They've allowed the very radical left to do outrageous damage. to the country, to the fabric of the country, and the left has coursing things horrifically.

And I think there's a place where you have to fight. But I think that if you are some kind of person of faith, you want the way you do it to reflect your faith. And I think that those people who have made an idol of politics have to be careful because even though we want to win politically, we have to do it in such a way that people see the love of God behind our efforts. Now, it doesn't mean we can guarantee that. Many times people are not going to see it, and they hate us just because we take the views we do. But I think that's important. But I do also think that when it comes to the Reformation of Manners, there are so many things.

Really, I mean, the three of us sitting here, we're all about culture. It doesn't mean we're not political, but we care about culture. We care about comedy, about TV, about movies. We care about what's out there. And I think people of faith need to be in the world more and understand that we need to bring our voices into the mainstream of the culture or help people who are trying to do that like us here on this program and in the books I write. Because there's not enough of that. So anytime I see somebody working in the cultural space, I want to, whom I admire, I want to, you know, have them on the program or whatever because I think that that's where we have failed. We focus on theology, we focus on politics, and we forget that the wider culture is many times being left to some of the most vulgar or click-baity kind of elements.

And I'll leave it at that. I'll end on an ugly note. All right. Here's a nice question from Rance. He says Pope Francis has said he will be retiring in two to three years for health reasons. There is an indication the next Pope will be African. Do you think Islam will have a greater influence in Europe when, and I think it should be if that happens? Okay, first of all, Rance, we haven't got any plum loco questions in a long time.

I think your question is kind of kooky. Maybe not quite plum loco, but loco. Because I have not read any reports that France is going to be retiring for his health. Have you guys read anything like that? No. And we read everything. Oh, my goodness. So I think, I don't know where you got that.

brands, but I don't think that's happening. I really would be thrilled if he retired, but there is not the slightest hint that that is the case. I wish he would retire. So I don't think that's true. And when you say there's an indication the next pope will be African, how do we know this? I mean, I know that there's one or two great cardinals who are Catholics, and I think that would be superb. I think that we need a pope who's more Catholic than the current pope and who's more Christian than the current pope, and that would be the best. thing for Islam in Europe. But anyway, next question. This question is from Luther. If Christianity

is the truth, why hasn't the truth won out after 2,000 years? Why is it actually losing in the West? You know, Luther, that's a good question. I think that it is a very good question because many of us wonder why doesn't the truth win? I think what we have to understand is that according to the Bible, we are living in a broken, fallen world. And it's very hard to deal with for all of us, if you're thinking sensitive person, that there are people that are lost, that are championing broken ideologies

that don't see things. So there is no good answer except to say, we live in a fallen world, and we need to understand that we live in a fallen world, that things are not the way they're supposed to be, and that the truth wins in the end. There's no 2,000-year time limit on it, and I don't know where you would think that it should win out over 2,000 years.

I mean, human beings are the same as confused and lost and broken today as they were 2,000 years ago. So I don't think it's an issue of, you know, gaining the cultural upper hand. Why is it losing in the West? Now, that's an even better question. I think the West has lost cultural confidence and that the West sometimes you can become so good at something that you get sloppy. And I think that the cultural Christianity of the West has made the West weak and less Christian. And so you have people all over Europe that they don't really know what they believe. So they're in fact, they're not robust Christians.

I just think that's temptation whenever you have anything to take it for granted and then to lose it. I think we've got a final question, final segment on Ask Mataxis. Don't go away. Hey there, folks. It's the Eric Mataxis show. I'm Eric Metaxus. And we are doing, this is the final segment. of Ask Metaxus. We're doing it once a week. People write in, ask questions, and I do my best with the help of my confreras to answer these questions. So what do we got next, Jens? All right. Next one is, where can I go to fight you? Oh, stop. No, I just made that up. Meet me in the alley, punk. Hey, hey, meet me in the alley. You're so tough? Okay.

No, no name here, but the question is, what advice do you have for me in pursuing a career as a writer and historical biographer? Don't do it. Get out. now. It's kind of funny. People ask these questions, and I remember when I was younger, I would have these kinds of questions, and you realize that there is no answer, right? Like, why, you think you can make a living that way? Great. It's not easy. So the question is, are you a good writer? Do you think you'll be able to write books that people want to read? If not, you know, you might want to go into the academic field where your work is not so much about the writing, but it's about the research, you know? So, you know, so. I think that, not that there aren't some academics who write readable books, but I think it really depends on what you want to do. But I always say, if you want to write, read the classics, read great books, read all the great books you can get your hand on, because that'll be the standard to which you write. And I think that I'm not sure where this person is in life, you know, because it's hard

to answer this, but I think that it's important to make a living. and a lot of times people get these ideas that, oh, I want to write, and, you know, you have to make a living. So I would say have a job while you're writing until you can support yourself as a writer. I've made a lot of mistakes along these lines I know where of I speak. All right, next. Okay. How do you or can you reconcile Luther's view of nonviolence versus Bonhofer's view? All right.

This is hard to answer because Luther didn't have a view of nonviolence. He had a view of violence. he kind of was it's kind of funny because he talks about Romans 13 and and how basically he says the state has the right, you know, to use the sword. Today we would say to use weapons. But that's biblical, I think. And I think Bonhofer, he's often called nonviolent, but I don't think he was nonviolent or pacifist. I think that's a misnomer given to him by the same people who kind of can, I mean, the people who, I feel. like until my book came out, the reigning view on Bonhofer was really wrong on this issue. People

portrayed him as a kind of 60s pacifist, because I think a lot of 60s pacifists who were against the war in Vietnam grabbed Bonhofer as a kind of hero and in many ways misinterpreted his writings. He was never, when we say pacifist, he was never that kind of a pacifist. If you go back to right after World War I, where France, Frenchmen are killing Germans and Germans are killing English. It's just, with Germans fighting English, I forgot. But what I meant to say was that you have European power, is killing other people from those countries. So he was simply saying that I have more in common with a Christian in France than I do with a non-Christian in Germany. Why do we have this hyper-nationalism? And so when people

talk about nationalism today or pacifism today, you really have to interpret it from where Bonhofer was coming from. So Bonhofer was not, by any means. what we think of as a pacifist or, you know, nonviolent on that level. I mean, I think that anybody who's a Christian wants to try nonviolence first, but Bonhofer never thought that a just war was something we shouldn't fight. Well, he was involved in the plot to kill. And obviously he got involved in the plot to kill Hitler. So Bob's your uncle.

And Luther, Luther had a really robust view of the state that they were ordained by God to keep order. So cops and, you know, military and so if people are rioting, it's you're not going to use nonviolence, you're going to use the threat of violence to calm them down. We're at a time. Folks, please go to metaxus talk.com.

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